Species Adapting
by crystalswolf
Summary: Buck has struggled with fully accepting Earth as his home, but a possible connection to this world comes in the strangest form.
1. My Savior

Title: Species Adapting

Series: Alien Nation

Rating: T

Notes: There may be an M-rated chapter or two that will be published separately. I do not have a beta for this story. I will probably not find a beta for this story, so read at your own risk. I developed (in my mind) the character Asona and her basic story years ago but only now filled in the rest. The stories of Emily and Buck always interested me the most about the show because they had the unique struggle with their identities. Once they were denied their Tenctonese culture only to be bombarded with human culture for the rest of their upbringing, they were truly between worlds.

Story Summary: Buck has struggled with fully accepting Earth as his home, but a possible connection to this world comes in the strangest form.

Chapter Summary: The whole story is based on this scene from "Little Lost Lamb" so I decided to add it in as a chapter.

Disclaimer: Of course, Alien Nation concept, characters, etc. do not belong to me.

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Chapter 1: My Savior**

Buck sat on the rocks near the edge of the ocean water with his Uncle Moodri as the sea air burned his nose. Although tolerable, he would endure just about anything for elusive answers to those unanswerable questions in his hearts. "What now, Uncle?" he asked the elder in their Tenctonese language, hoping for wisdom of what to do next.

"We continue," the elder responded simply in their language, as though it were nothing more than walking through a door. But it wasn't that simple and the catastrophic outcome panicked Buck.

"We can't!" Buck held the elder Tenctonese man's arm tightly. Buck had shown bravery in many ways but the idea of saltwater dissolving their skin like battery acid made him tremble like a small child. It was a fear that reminded him of being taken away from his parents on the slave ship when younger.

"The salt water could kill us!" he reminded his uncle of their certain death if they were to go anywhere near the ocean water.

"Will it?" the man's aged eyes emphasized the question. Still afraid, Buck let his hands drop and said nothing more as the man walked away from the boy. Buck watched as his uncle sank his toes into the cool moist sand. They should've burned a little as summer, sun-heated pavement burned bare feet, but his uncle showed no outward sign if they did.

But there was no hint of pain on the wrinkled face. In fact, Buck was certain it was more contentment than anything else. One foot in front of the other carried the elder to the edge of the water.

Buck stepped closer, careful not to surround himself with the moist sand but to get a better look at whatever it was his uncle had planned. It was then that the next tide of seawater came in and washed over the man's feet.

The old man turned to face his disbelieving nephew, reassuring him with a smile and arms raised as though proving to a small child that there were no monsters in the closet.

"How?" Buck questioned, desperate for something to make sense.

"I am part of it," the man now explained in English, "and it is part of me. Come Finiksa! Believe that and the water can't hurt you."

Buck wanted to believe it. Somewhere deep in his hearts he needed to believe it, but as his eyes fell to the saltwater, the fear ignited the panic and he found himself involuntarily moving away.

"I'm not you, Uncle." Buck admitted, also switching to English. He was disappointed in himself more than he was before they'd come to this forsaken place, "I don't have your faith."

Perhaps sensing his young nephew's turmoil, Moodri's voice still spoke with all of the wisdom Buck had learned to expect but the tone was also soothing, understanding, "There's no shame in that. Shame is for those who remain blind to themselves."

"I don't know where I belong or who I am!" Buck called out. Although it was to his uncle, it was more of a declaration for himself. Finally, he could say it openly. Half of his life was on the ship in space and the other half on this alien world. In the end, where did that leave him?

His uncle could see something break through within his young relative and knew it was time to tell Buck what had to be told. "With each breath, you join this Earth."

"Are you saying I belong here?" How could he? Buck loved his people and he could never accept humans with the same love. "I hate this world!"

Moodri disregarded the statement, "All worlds are stardust. This world, our world. We are stardust. Scattered, drifting, yet united by one voice. The voice that tells the leaves to turn to the light, the flowers to bloom. It speaks to you too."

Buck wanted to believe his uncle in all things, because even he could sense the truth of what the man offered but they were just words in his hearts. "I can't hear it," Buck felt the same panic he felt when watching his uncle walk into the water that should have burned him.

"I know," the corners of his uncle's mouth turned upward into the smile that strangely gave Buck some comfort. "You carry a wound. And until that wound is cleansed you won't be able to hear the voice."


	2. Regret and Never Forget

Buck sat on his parents' sofa staring at the paper in his hand. It had been so long since he'd seen his uncle. Not once did Buck visit the man that gave him his life back, that set him on a better path. It was the same man that gave him some sense of hope that he would belong on this alien planet.

_Dear Francisco family, it is with great sorrow that we must  
inform you of the recent death of Thomas Lamas, known to us__  
and others by his Tenctonese name Moodri. We will send  
belongings__ shortly after this message is mailed. I would like to__  
express my deepest condolences and we, too, grieve the  
passing of such a unique soul._

_Martha Ryers  
Species Unification Through Scientific and Spiritual Advancement_

Part of him wished he weren't there before everyone else to bring in the mail. A few more hours of blissful ignorance would have been welcome. But what would that have helped? This was guilt and there was no way, now, to make up for it.

During his teen years, if not for his uncle's careful guidance, Buck could have ended up in prison or worse. But then Uncle Moodri left and Buck had been so swept up in life that he never thought to check up on the wise elder.

Buck remembered sitting on the outcropping of rocks with his uncle, his life on a knife's edge. He'd just killed a boy in self defense but that made no difference. More than the worry of the law catching up with him, he felt the destruction of his soul having taken a life. Each night when all was quiet, he saw the boy's face after the bullet hit, just before death. Each day he saw the boy's face in every human he passed by.

Then his uncle led him to one of his greatest fears. Confronting that fear surfaced yet another, deeper fear. The answer to both was to make peace with this world where his family, his people now lived on.

Buck closed his eyes and pressed the letter between his hands the way some humans prayed. If only he could hold the letter tightly enough, believe in it hard enough that perhaps he could see his uncle one last time. If only he could thank the man that set him on the right path. Uncle Moodri saved his life and he never thanked him. Now, he never could.


	3. Human in Tenctonese Clothing

Little Tencton was quieter than other areas of Los Angeles at night. Like any other section of the city, it had its seedier side. But Tenctonese senses were sharper than humans so criminals had to hide their activities more efficiently. This was the reason why most of the street cops in Little Tencton were Tenctonese.

Perfectly understandable, but it was still little comfort for the Tenctonese officers. There wasn't a lot of opportunity to work their way up and elsewhere when always assign to the small section of the city. It didn't help that many humans, in and out of uniform, felt that it was where all Tenctonese belonged anyway.

Buck felt the oppressive weight of prejudice and politics more so on nights like these. His annoying night-time schedule along with being pigeon-holed to one location seemed like the hallmark of the same old, same old for his kind.

Sure, his father made detective, but everyone knew that was a publicity stunt the police department pulled to quiet concerns and bad press. And it did work for his father and the department, but all of the movement forward for his people, at least where the police were concerned, stopped there.

In the last week there had been eight murders, all involving human women that were somehow tied to the SUTSSA offices.

SUTSSA, Species Unification Though Scientific and Spiritual Advancement, was an organization only a half decade old and already caused quite a stir. They advocated the union of the two species in all possible ways which ignited the anger of several human and Tenctonese segregationist organizations. It didn't help that human women seemed to drop like flies around them.

Buck made his way down the street heading to where he agreed to meet back with his partner, Pam. All was quiet, he thought to himself taking the silence of their mobile walkie-talkies to assume the same for Pam. For Tectonese, though, silence was relative.

When turned on, but unused, the walkie-talkie mobile phones crackled of dead. It was a sound only the sensitive hearing of his people could pick up. In the building he just passed, from some unknown apartment, he could hear the muffled sounds of intimacy. This was Little Tencton and therefore they were soft moans blending with humming.

"At least someone's happy tonight," a feminine voice only slightly lower pitched than normal bemused as she reached out to pat Buck's shoulder. Officer Pamela Kaykes eyes scanned the building. Obviously she was more curious to determine from which apartment the sounds emanated. It seemed the observing privacy was not shared by all of his people.

It wasn't something he wanted to do, at all, and Pam finally gave up when she realized her patrol partner made his way to the end of the next block. She rushed to catch up with him and Buck heard her grumble just before settling into step, "I guess it's for the best. Just a reminder of what I'm not getting.

She stopped at an entrance to an alley and Buck hadn't noticed until he was already at his destination, in front of the SUTSSA building. The female police officer squinted, straining to see down the nearby alley.

Sighing, Buck was ready to chastise Pam for listening in on yet another couple when she lifted her hand with her pointer finger extended. Buck figured this couldn't be mere eavesdropping and decided to concentrate on any sounds around them as well.

In the alley, he heard a muffled breath and then a choked cough. Pam heard the sound first and raced into the dark walkway between the two buildings before Buck realized what was happening.

In mid-stride, Pam pulled her gun out while Buck took a more cautious approach and walked slowly into the dark passage with his gun drawn. His eyes shift from left to right as he listened for something to give more of a clue as to what was going on and where. It occurred to him that he and Pam may not be the only ones in the darkness with excellent hearing. A Newcomer would hear just as well.

At the end of the alleyway was a central open area where the back of five buildings met. Buck could make out one massive shadow Pam ran toward at full speed and he tried to squint, hoping for some adjustment to the lower light.

The large shadow was actually two bodies that were closely entwined, and eventually he could make out the shape of hands of the larger person trying to overpower the smaller person.

Bald, spotted heads let him know that both were Tenctonese and he could make out tape across the mouth of the obviously feminine form struggling with her aggressor with something tied around her neck.

"Freeze!" Pam roared. Closer to the two than Buck was, she continued to charge at them.

Startled, the shadow of the man dropped the woman and ran down one of the other alleyways. Typical of his partner, Pam rushed passed the woman with little regard for her injury and began pursuit. Concern for the victim took a back seat to the thrill of the chase?

Collapsing to the ground, the victim tried to catch her breath as her hands held what had to have been a tender throat. She ripped the tape from her mouth and unwound the rope from her throat while trying to take full breaths that seemed to be difficult from the sound of them.

Without thinking, Buck reached for this mobile and called for back-up, explaining that someone near the SUTSSA building had been attacked. This time it wasn't a human woman and Buck wondered if the killer was branching out to different species.

"Ma'am, are you okay enough to stand?" Buck noticed her spots and could not help the instinctual attraction to the pattern. Pushing back a natural response, he dealt with the more pressing issue of an injured victim. He held his hand out to support her.

The woman rasped a response but when it became too uncomfortable she quietly took his hand to stand on wobbly legs. Buck's eyes could not help but stare at the shapely spots of her head but then a breath caught in his throat as his body suddenly became confused in its response of attraction. The woman had ears, and eyebrows.

"Thank you, officer," she thanked him and he had to take a moment for it to register in his mind which language she spoke. It was his people's language spoken perfectly, albeit raspy.

Buck couldn't speak, he couldn't move as her eyes met his. Her face hit a sliver of light from the main street and he saw the rich caramel color of her skin and there was no doubt that this was a human but where she should have had hair were very well-formed spots of a deep, rich brown.

"I appreciate your help, officer," the woman switched to English. It didn't take long for her to notice Buck hadn't moved. His eyes focused on her and she continued, "Is there something wrong?"

Buck blinked to regain his senses as he slowly heard her words and finally remembered how to speak, "Are you human?"

The words tumbled out of his mouth before he regained all of his wits and wished he could pull back the words. The woman's emerald green eyes, sparkling like jewels in the slice of light that cut through the dark, focused on Buck and her lips curled into a mischievous smile that reached all the way up to the two emeralds. "Yes."

From the main road, he heard cars screeching to a halt and feet hitting the pavement. Voices added to the commotion as Buck helped the woman to the other officers trying to figure out the crime scene. He tried not to look but couldn't help himself. His eyes glanced peripherally and again would not have believed the woman was human if not for her ears, her eyebrows and her tanned skin.

Tenctonese didn't have ears, they had slits that curled in various shapes. His people didn't have very much hair either, especially not eyebrows. And her skin color, that soft kiss of brown. Tenctonese were a pale pink color and couldn't tan.

He'd heard of humans tattooing their bodies with Tentonese spots and most allowed their body hair to partially cover them but few wore their tattoos bald and none chose such shapely spots that called out to him on such a basic level.

"Asona," a Tenctonese woman called toward them. At least this time Buck was fairly sure this was an authentic Tenctonese woman. Kathy Sykes was the wife of his father's partner, Matt Sykes. Seemingly familiar with the victim, Kathy wrapped her arms around the strange human when she came close.

"Thank you, Buck," Kathy turned toward him for a quick moment before returning her attention to the one she called Asona.

"A so na" was a very old phrase among his people. Directly translated, it meant "In as I" which was similar to the phrase "we're in the same boat". His uncle Moodri taught him that.

Pam jogged to his side from one of the other four alleys and out of the one they'd originally entered, trying desperately to catch her breath and looking around in the din. "All this for a one woman?"

Taking in the scene of five police cars and four detectives including his father and Matt, Buck wondered the same thing.

Clapping his shoulder, Pam jolted him out of the chaos and back to duty, "I think we have reports to fill out, Partner," Pam reminded him.

Nodding in her direction, Buck took one last look at the strange human woman that, at first glace, looked Tenctonese. She was surrounded by an older human woman and an elder Tenctonese man with Kathy. Buck heard the names of the new arrivals from the flurry of voices, Martie and William.

Catching his eyes lingering on her again, Asona smiled in his direction before Buck, embarrassed, quickly left to rejoin Pam.


	4. How to Protect

With two girls, his parents' house was rarely a quiet place. One teen and one toddler, there was a steady stream of commotion that washed through the house and into their lives.

Four o' clock in the morning Buck closed the front door to his parents' house behind him gently. This was the time when everyone slept and he could enjoy the house alone and in silence.

Flopping on the sofa, Buck rested his head on one arm of the sofa and stretched his legs out to the other end. The fabric was worn and comfortable as only an old, broken-in piece of furniture could be.

With his forearm, he covered his eyes from the low light of the lamp his mother kept lit for him at night. At least she did after he'd broken her favorite vase stumbling in the dark. The vase she'd shaped with her own hands.

After a long night of filling out the report for the attack in the alley, his body relaxed into the beginning of sleep.

From the kitchen there was some chatter and occasionally voices rose in heated discussion then lowered to an average volume. Buck was sure Matt and Kathy were visiting.

But no matter how quiet the house would have been or how loud the voices in the kitchen got, there was only one voice Buck heard. He'd heard it once, earlier in the night but it echoed in his mind since. During his drive to the station, he heard her. Filling out the report on the incident in the alley, he heard her. His entire drive home, he heard her.

"Noke vot, alsolso."

"Thank you, officer," in perfect Tenctonese that he never knew a human mouth could achieve. The words simply thanked him but in her sultry voice, they might as well have been an invitation to her bed by the way his body reacted.

Those mesmerizing eyes focusing on him in a dark alley popped into his mind every time his eyes closed. A beautiful shade green that one would guess could not exist in nature, human or Tenctonese.

Even now his body heated at the thought of the tone of her voice and how it might sound humming along his body.

"Buck," his baby sister yawned from the top of the staircase and the tiny voice was as sobering as a cold shower. The rise in temperature throughout his body plummeted in an instant.

"What's all the noise?" she asked.

Rushing to the stairs, he took a seat on a step below his sister to see her eye to eye. "Shhh," he murmured and with a loosely balled fist, he pressed his knuckles gently against her temple and felt the small child's pulse. "Matt and Kathy are here."

Vesna smiled and rubbed her eyes. The couple in the house was nothing new to the family, although it was much later and much louder than usual.

About to take her hand to walk her back to her bedroom, Buck heard a voice at the bottom of the stairs. Vesna smiled as the person greeted them, "Hello, Buck… can I call you Buck?"

The world slowed and his body froze. When he finally regained his senses he turned to find those green eyes that haunted him all night staring at him again. Her full lips formed a smile and he felt the pink blood in his body coursing.

Again, she spoke perfectly in his language right down to properly placed clicks and accent. It wasn't until Vesna spoke that he realized he hadn't answered her question.

"Of course you can call him Buck. That's his name, silly," Vesna answered for him in the mish-mash of Tenctenglish. At least, that's what they called it nowadays.

Suddenly aware that his jaw froze when his body unfroze, Buck managed, with some difficulty, to ask, "Asona… you're here?"

A faint twitch at the corners of her mouth hinted that she restrained an amused smile. With a jerk of her thumb in the direction of the kitchen, Asona then sighed with a defiant pout, "They're planning my life in the kitchen."

Asona stepped closer, her full lips stretching into a sweet, friendly smile directed to the person beside Buck, "And what's your name?"

"Vesna," the child spoke proudly. Then her brow ridge furrowed and Buck figured she noticed the undeniably human features.

The woman offered a curt bow of her head, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Vesna."

The child giggled then bowed her head in response. Just before turning and running up the stairs, Vesna leaned in close to her brother and whispered in his ear-opening, "I like her, Buck. Keep her."

The two silently watched the girl leave and as the little form disappeared into the second floor, he prayed to their sacred patriarch Andarko that Asona didn't hear Vesna's words.

He struggled to turn his body toward her and bring his eyes to meet hers again, but when he did, those emerald green eyes trapped him. They locked him in place.

Why was she so enticing? Enhancing the features of her face, it bothered him that her spots contributed to her beauty so much. They weren't even hers, just tattoos she'd chosen to have applied to her skin. She was a human.

No matter what she was, he couldn't stop his body from reacting to the sound of her or the sight of her. Words were lost in his throat as he tried to speak, but only managed strangled exhales.

Saved by the commotion of two couples coming from the kitchen, Buck had the first full breath he hadn't had since he was aware Asona was in the room.

"We've worked out a compromise," Kathy smiled in Asona direction, but the human woman cast a skeptical eye at her Tenctonese friend.

"Yes," Buck's father agreed enthusiastically, "Asona requires around the clock protection and I'm sure Grazier will assign you, Buck." Buck felt one of his hearts stop.

"It's a perfect idea. He can stay with you during the night in your apartment and during the day we will have armed police officers protecting the office," Kathy completed the well thought out ambush.

Asona's eyes turned downward in thought then glanced in Buck's direction before her eyes returned to Kathy. "Has anyone asked Buck?"

"Oh, he wouldn't mind. Would you, Buck?" his mother finally joined in the ambush aiming all eyes in his direction, including a pair of green that caused his insides to hum. His second heart seized.

She had such an unsettling effect on him just by standing near him for minutes, what would he do with entire nights with her?

His mind churned, thinking of any and every way to get out of it politely. The only thing he could think of that might work was a long shot.

"I don't think she'd want me hanging around her apartment from one end of the night to the other," he tried to speak casually but even he noticed the doubt in his voice.

Asona reached for the banister of the stairs and leaned on it, her eyes looking directly at him when she spoke the words that made him picture humming down her spine, "I don't mind having you in my apartment, Buck. You are very welcome."

"Besides," Matt chortled, "it's Buck and a patrol car at night or whisked away at some secret SUTSSA compound."

Asona's eyes widened, "A patrol car too?" Her body slumped and Buck could tell she was finally defeated.

Buck wasn't sure what Matt meant by his reference to a SUTSSA compound but the thought didn't weigh too heavily in his mind as he watched Asona discuss the particulars with his parents, Matt, and Kathy.

He couldn't help but study the way her lush lashes dusted her cheeks or how her lips pouted whenever that secret compound was mentioned. No longer just focused on her tattooed spots, Buck focused on the shapeliness of her jaw, her neck, and her shoulders.

It wasn't until he heard his name repeated several times in his mind that he realized it was just catching up to reality. His name wasn't just in his mind but his parents trying to get his attention. Finally he snapped out of whatever trance he was in, to notice.

There were some details discussed between his parents, Matt, Kathy, and Asona but had no idea what they were.

When he felt his eyes flush, his mother rescued him by explaining that Asona would stay in their house for the night and in the morning Buck would drive her to work. There was no question that he would, at least as far as his parents and Kathy were concerned. It wasn't as though he could find his voice long enough to participate in the conversation.

xxx

Laying on his bed with his head supported by his folded arms, Buck stared at the ceiling of his trailer. He'd never been so grateful for having the RV his parents allowed him to use in the driveway as a makeshift apartment as he was at the moment.

Not only was it a great way to save his money for a first house instead of an apartment. But most important, in the living room of his parents' house, only half a driveway and a walk through the front door away, was a woman that occupied every thought he'd had since he'd met her.

Before leaving, he saw his mother lay out the nicer sheets she reserved for guests only on the couch with pillows. Buck couldn't help but wonder if those sheets would smell like her in the morning. He hadn't noticed until that moment that he'd remembered everything about her, including her scent of apples and jasmine.

Why didn't she smell like other humans? Especially in the summer, his people had to make use of several cans of air fresheners. Here was one human that he not only could tolerate but actually smelled sweet and alluring to him.

A tap at his RV door broke his concentration from the one thing, the one person he wished he could push out of his mind. He opened the RV door and there she was to greet him.

"May I come in?" the tone of her words was sweet and caressed his imagination as he thought of the mouth they came from and the tongue that manipulated the sounds.

He couldn't speak and could barely move enough to give her room for entrance.

As Asona entered his trailer, her shoulder brushed his arm from the cramped quarters. Her eyes looked around the small area at nothing in particular.

"I just wanted to thank you for tonight."

Buck tried to explain that his partner Pam scared the perpetrator away but the words came out strained and mashed. Heat rushed to his eyes and he knew he was blushing. His only hope was that she, as a human, didn't notice that Tenctonese blush differently.

"Do I make you nervous?" she asked him.

He should've known she knew how Tenctonese blushed. Spotted as a Tenctonese woman would be, speaking their language as a native speaker would, even her mannerisms were what one would expect from a woman of his people, it should've been expected that she would know such things.

When she took a step closer to him, he responded by involuntarily stepping away. What did he fear?

The warm smile faded and was replaced with one far more forced and uncomfortable. She bid him good night and moved to leave the trailer but as she walked passed him, Buck inhaled her scent deeply. She must have heard him because she turned and her eyes scanned his face quickly.

Buck tried to smile and say goodbye but she surprised him by pressing her lips against his. It was pleasant as he'd experienced years ago with another woman.

Her lips pulled away and she then pressed the side of her head to his. To humans, it was such a simple gesture but for Tenctonese, it aroused the senses. Even now he felt his blood rush to his genitals.

Watching her leave the RV and walking back to the house, Buck knew he was not going to get much sleep this night.

xxx

After George saw their guests to their car and Susan spread the sheets and pillows along the sofa, both made their way to the kitchen to allow Asona time to adjust to her makeshift bed.

George grabbed a container of spoiled milk from the refrigerator and set out two glasses while Susan cleared the snacks of vegetables she'd set out for their guests.

"That poor girl," Susan looked up at her husband from her bent position at the fridge.

George filled the first glass halfway and began pouring into the second. The scowl on his face was the telltale sign of something more pressing on his mind than the emotional well-being of the strange human girl.

"I wonder why Kathy is so adamant about protecting her," he spoke to himself aloud while closing the container of rotten milk, sniffing it just before returning it to the fridge over Susan's shoulder.

After closing the refrigerator, Susan leaned against the wooden counter to take her glass of chilled, expired milk. For a second, while inhaling the strong aroma, she considered how strange spoiled, pasteurized milk could produce such a beautiful product.

Reminded quickly of their current conversation by the seemingly permanent scowl of her husband, she had to admit Kathy was acting strange. Although their friend wouldn't explain why Asona and several other human women were so important, she did let slip during their conversation that it was something important found in their blood.

George was the first to react when they heard the front door open and close. He rushed into the living room and made his way to the side windows of the front door, with Susan close behind, just in time to watch Asona walk to the RV and enter.

Susan turned to her husband, "Did you see Buck? Did you see his eyes whenever he looks at her?"

Finally the scowl on her husband's face softened and in moments was replaced with a tentative smile, "She does have great taste in spots."

The two, with their milk in hand, made their way up the stairs and to their bedroom as Susan added, "I like her."


End file.
